How should I properly setup my .htaccess file?

[maxduveen]

I have searched google for 'how to setup .htaccess file' and it seems that every website has some variation. For example:

RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^yoursite.com

RewriteRule ^(.*)$ http://www.yoursite.com/$1 [R=permanent,L]

On SEOMOZ someone posted this:

RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} !^www.yoursite.com [NC]

RewriteRule (.*) http://www.yoursite.com/$1 [L,R=301]

On yet another website, I found this:

RewriteEngine On

RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} !^your-site.com$ [NC]

RewriteRule ^(.*)$ http://your-site.com/$1 [L,R=301]

As you can see there are slight differences.

Which one do I use? I'm on Apache CentOS and I have HTML5 websites and several Joomla! wesites. Would the HTACCESS File be different for both?

[CaseyKluver]

There are many many things you can do with your .htaccess

What are you trying to accomplish? Are you trying to redirect non-www to www? Trying to get a better link structure? Trying to redirect pages? Or a site?

In most cases it depends on your server setup and your needs. Since you mentioned Joomla, this post has some pretty good explanations and examples at the bottom you can download.

[maxduveen]

Thanks for the reply Casey!

I'm trying to redirect non www to www. and I'm on a dedicated server running apache. For my HTML5 pages, what should my HTACCESS file look like.

My ultimate goal is to be SEO optimized. Any other settings that will help my sites would be appreciated

[donford]

Hi Max

1  should work for your requirements. It is what we use to direct all non www traffic to the www page on 3 different platforms. Oscommerce, php custom build, Wordpress.

Just verify everything by trying to hit a couple none www urls to verify everything re-directs okay.

Also here is a good htaccess shortcut sheet (Note site sometimes loads slow so you may want to copy and paste it to a text file for later reference)

Hope that helps

[maxduveen]

Well, after trying out all 3 of the options i posted, none worked and one threw a server error.

BUT, alas... I found the correct way to do it:

<code class="htaccess" title="in your .htaccess file">RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} !^www\.
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ http://www.%{HTTP_HOST}/$1 [R=301,L]</code>

This is the correct way to forward all non www requests to www.yoursite.com

No need to put your domain name, simply add the code above to a .htaccess file on your server and viola!

If someone wants to redirect all www to non www then the code would be:
```

> ```
> ```
> <code class="htaccess" title="in your .htaccess file">RewriteEngine On
> RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} !^my-domain\.com$ [NC]
> RewriteRule ^(.*)$ http://my-domain.com/$1 [R=301,L]</code>
> ``` 
> ```

```
```
<code class="htaccess" title="in your .htaccess file">and of course replace the my-domain with your domain ;)</code>
``` 
```